Mumbo Jumbo is an experimental, postmodern novel that actually employs more textbook than novelistic conventions. It contains illustrations, footnotes, and a bibliography. Of particular critical interest is the "Partial Bibliography," an inclusion one critic calls Reed's "most brilliant stroke."
Another critic finds that Reed's bibliography "affirms his opinion of pedantry and outworn attitudes in literary circles."
Beyond the textbooklike feel of the novel, the text itself comprises a mishmash of characters, conflict, and connections, all brought together in a style that shuns quotation marks, uses unusual spellings ("Kongress" instead of Congress; "Kathedral" instead of Cathedral), employs a selective use of commas, and substitutes numbers for numerical words. The technique makes for an interesting read. The novel is unconventional, but the differences add to the book's readability rather than detract.
One of the unusual.....
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